Since I couldn't find any chemical pe review course (online or classrom in NJ), I am planning to attend mechanical engineering pe review course. Please share your thoughts and/or experiences if this is a good decision.

I had the same problem when I was trying to register for the review course because I live in South Carolina, I did not have any option but to study on my own. I envy people living in houston and san francisco who have access to all these resources.

I think mechanical and chemical pe review course are two different classes. Ofcourse if you prefer mechanical review course, you might cover 50% of the test. For example, in the mechanical review course, the following are covered engg economics, pumps, general thermodynamics, basic comubstion (applied thermodynamics), heat tranfer (heat exchangers, NTU). But there are lot more topics which you will need for chemical pe in addition to just mentioned before. like, mass and energy balance, energy balance with chemical thermodynamics, plant design and optimization with safety principles, reaction kinetics. Mass transfer is another big subject which is covered in depth in the afternoon session and from my experience, if you cannot score in this subject, there are chances you will not get through the test.

In summary, mechanical review course might cover 40-50% of the test but will not prepare you for the chemical pe test.

Thank you very much for your helpful input. Based on my diagnostic results, I can tell you that my weak topic is plant design & optimization with safety principles. Since I have been working in the enviromental engineering area after my graduation, I am not familiar with the plant design & optimization. Another thing is that I received all my degrees out of counrty. To make it a short story, which book do you suggest for plant design & optimization except Perry's handbook?

I did not have any particular text book for this topic. Perrys is not very handy reference book at the time of exam and if you do not have idea of where the question is from, forget it. It happened to me in the test because I spent almost 30 minutes just searching for the right information for only one question.

There is no particular text book for plant design and optimization because PD is the design of process and equipment in the chemical process industry which includes optimization of design, safety, waste treatment and economic considerations, sizing of equipment. Solutions of problems in the plant design requires the use of fundamental principles from the areas of mass and energy balance, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mass transfer, reaction kinetics, thermodynamics and economics. There areas will have to be covered individually and apply all the principles in solving plant design problems. Ofcourse lot of it has to with experience too. The best solution to approaching this subject is to have better understanding in the above topics.

Thank you very much for your helpful input. Based on my diagnostic results, I can tell you that my weak topic is plant design & optimization with safety principles. Since I have been working in the enviromental engineering area after my graduation, I am not familiar with the plant design & optimization. Another thing is that I received all my degrees out of counrty. To make it a short story, which book do you suggest for plant design & optimization except Perry's handbook?

Thanks again,

Hi Yasmin, I have the same isuue, I graduated from another Countrty(Egypt), when I started work in US, I was in the environmental field. I am totally lost, I do not know where to start from, which books to get.Is there any courses given in NY as refreshment???Thx for your help.